Mail carriers' annual food drive is Saturday

Dover and New Philadelphia postal carriers will join carriers in more than 10,000 cities in the U.S. to collect food for local pantries Saturday.

They will collect canned goods as they walk their routes during the 19th annual National Food Drive to “Stamp Out Hunger” — the largest one-day food drive in the nation. Other area carriers also may be participating and donors are encouraged to call local post offices to determine participation.

The efforts of letter carriers represented by the National Association of Letter Carriers, with the help of rural letter carriers, other postal employees and numerous other volunteers, have resulted in delivery of more than 1 billion pounds of donations to community food banks over the last 18 years, including 77.1 million in 2010.

Nonperishable food donations may be left at mailboxes and in post offices for delivery to local food banks. Campbell Soup Co. is the major corporate sponsor and will earmark an additional 1 million pounds of canned food to the drive.

The drive also relies on the support of the U.S. Postal Service, National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the United Way Worldwide, AFL-CIO Community Services and the generous support from the Family Circus cartoonists Bill and Jeff Keane, who create a special cartoon to promote the drive.